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Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem—how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In RAPID DEVELOPMENT, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. Inside, you’ll find:

A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project and the best practices to make that strategy work

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

I can hear some of you exclaiming, "How can you possibly recommend a book about software scheduling published by Microsoft Press and written by a consultant to Microsoft?!" Well, put aside any preconceived biases. This is a tremendous book on effective scheduling software development, and it drinks deeply from the wisdom of all the classics in the field such as Brook's Mythical Man Month -- and is likely well-informed by McConnell's experiences, good and bad, in Redmond.

The nine page section entitled "Classic Mistakes Enumerated" is alone worth the price of admission and should be required reading for all developers, leads, and managers. Here are some types of the 36 classic mistakes that McConnell describes in detail:

People Related Mistakes

Heroics

Adding people to a late project

Politics placed over substance (etc.)

Process Related Mistakes

Abandonment of planning under pressure

Planning to catch up later

"Code-like-hell" programming (etc.)

Technology Related Mistakes

Silver-Bullet syndrome

Overestimating savings from new tools or methods

Switching tools in the middle of a project (etc.)

I suspect that if you've ever been involved in software development, you winced after reading each of these nine points. And you will learn a great deal from the remaining 640 pages about concrete solutions.

My only substantive gripe: cheesy Powerpoint graphics. Nonetheless, this book is Very Highly Recommended.

About the Author

Steve McConnell is recognized as one of the premier authors and voices in the development community. He is Chief Software Engineer of Construx Software and was the lead developer of Construx Estimate and of SPC Estimate Professional, winner of Software Development magazine's Productivity Award. He is the author of several books, including Code Complete and Rapid Development, both honored with Software Development magazine's Jolt Award.

This book is quite long, but worth every page. As a programmer, one usually gets focused on that - programming. There are however, several dynamics at play at any given software development project: customers, unstable requirements, risks, teamwork, tools, etc. This book presents several fundamental principles, strategies, philosophies and mistakes and than goes to present a set of very important best practices. I highly recommend it!

This is an excellent project-centric book for both managers and developers. If you are a manager, it tells you what to do and what not to do. Teaches you not to be bullied by technologically ignorant corporate officers, how developers think and how to make them happy. Most of all, it teaches you how to leverage your projects to get the most bang for your buck. Sites real-world examples as well as the hypothetical. I highly recommend this book for anyone working professionally in the IT/IS industry.

The desktop reference that every project team member should have is Steve McConnell's "Rapid Development". My reason? This book covers just about everything - from Best Practices (more than 2 dozen) to Team Building, and includes case studies, "Do's and Don'ts", nuts and bolts, and topics of interest for any team member. It's a forward-thinking type of reference that literally makes people think about why "doing things right the first time" is far less painfull than "doing it again the right way". It's about 2-inches thick with nearly 650 pages of eye-opening reading for all.

Took me a couple of months to work through this thick catalog of project management techniques, but worth it I think. It dates back to the late eighties, but is still relevant today. I'm glad I read it.

While I enjoyed reading much of this book, and it had excellent advice, I found much of it only applying to project managers and other management with the ability to really effect change. As a lower level developer, there's not a lot I can do with the information in this book, but I think it's relevance will increase ten fold as I progress through my career, hopefully saving myself from making many mistakes on the way.

Overall it was a nice easy read, but beware that it won't be very applicable early in your career.